Since the first announcement on December 31 by the Chinese government that the health services in the city of Wuhan were treating dozens of patients infected with a novel coronavirus, the world has undergone a profound transformation. Economies, markets and entire industries were shut down in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic, and then reopened, all the while cognizant that future restrictions and lockdowns remain possible, if not likely.

For the jewellery industry it has been a nerve racking period, as much as a result of the uncertainty as it has been because of the economic slowdown and general concerns about health and safety. But about one fact there is general agreement – the jewellery business in the post-COVID world will be greatly different to the one that existed before the pandemic.

For the past 14 weeks, Jewellery Industry Voices has polled the opinions of industry leaders, experts and trendsetters, with the goal being to better understand the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, and to develop an understanding of what the future holds. In a situation as dynamic and complex as the one we are living through, it has been a daunting but fascinating undertaking.

The 15th edition of CIBJO’s webinar series will be the last edition of the first season of Jewellery Industry Voices, before the August hiatus. It will feature four of the industry’s most respected analysts, who together will help distill a vast amount of information that has been gathered over the past several months, to provide a broader perspective of where the industry stands and where it is headed. The webinar is entitled “Digging deep into the data: The jewellery industry analysts.”

The panel includes Paul Zimnisky, a New York-based global diamond industry analyst whose research and analysis is used by financial institutions, management consulting firms, private and public corporations, governments, international organizations and universities; Pranay Narvekar, a Mumbai-based consultant specializing in many of the crucial strategic, financial and structural problems facing the industry pipeline; Edahn Golan, an expert whose in-depth data analysis is based on his own detailed data and research of the mining, wholesale and retail markets, as well as rough and polished price analysis; and Russell Shor, an industry veteran with more than 40 years of experience, including being the in-house analyst for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

The webinar, on Thursday, July 30, 2020, will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

The second season of Jewellery Industry Voices will begin on September 3, 2020. Information about the new schedule will be made public during the month of August.

Taking place on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, with Edward Johnson as co-host. The final Home Gemmology webinar session before the series takes a summer recess, it will be devoted to the subject of freshwater cultured pearls.

Farmed predominantly in China in lakes, rivers and ponds, cultured freshwater pearls are produced in a variety of whimsical shapes and in an array of pastel colors. Many do not have have a bead nucleus, but rather a piece of tissue, and the result often is a pearl with thicker nacre than its seawater counterpart.

Joining Rui and Edward will be Jeremy Shepherd, a pearl specialist from the United States and CEO of the online trading company PearlParadise.com.

The new season of Home Gemmology webinars will resume on September 8, 2020

During turbulent times – and there have been few as turbulent as the current crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic – the jewellery industry has come to depend on a select group of trade journalists to distill the the information it is receiving, and to explain what it means. An integral part of the industry, although somewhat separated from it, the industry press is expected to be both supportive and critical, impartial and empathetic. It is called on to provide the unvarnished truth, but at the same time not to paint an unflattering image of the industry in the public arena.

It’s an often tough role to fill, and this is complicated by the fact that the trade press itself has undergone a significant transformation. Whereas it once it was exclusively comprised of advertiser-supported print magazines, today it has largely shifted online, where the business model is less defined. A shrinking revenue base has resulted in a smaller number of journalists being called on to provide an ever increasing volume of news content and analysis, driven by a public that is today used to the up-to-the-minute immediacy of the Internet.

But, in many respects, in the new media environment the role of the expert and impartial trade journalist is more important than ever before. In a world where any individual can become a provider of information via a website or the social media, the phenomenon of fake news has become prevalent. Trusted journalists, who understand the content and can reliably fact-check before publishing, play a critical role in helping the industry understand what is happening.

The 14th edition of CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinars will focus on the trade press, looking at the role it plays in the industry and how its members view and understand the current situation. It is entitled “Where are we headed? The view of the industry press.”

The panel includes a uniquely qualified and diverse group of speakers, both geographically and in terms of the parts of business they cover and are involved in. It includes Rob Bates, Senior Editor and News Director of JCK Magazine and JCK Online, whose blog, Cutting Remarks, has won two Jesse H. Neal awards from American Business Media; Avi Krawitz, Senior Analyst and News Editor at the Rapaport Group, who also is responsible for publishing the monthly Rapaport Research Report; Samit Bhatta, co-owner of the Retail Jeweller Media and publisher of The Retail Jeweller; and Rachael Taylor, a freelance jewellery journalist, whose latest project, The Jewellery Cut, a platform that supports independent jewellery designers, was named as one of the top six jewellery Instagram accounts to follow by The New York Times.

The webinar, on Thursday, July 23, 2020, will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place on Tuesday, July 21, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, with Edward Johnson as co-host. It will concentrate on Sri Lanka, the Indian Ocean nation that locals refer to as Ratna-Dweepa or Gem Island.

Formerly called Ceylon, Sri Lanka is today a prominent source of variety of gemstones, among them ruby, chrysoberyl, spinel, topaz, zircon, tourmaline and garnet. But almost certainly the most widely sought after Sri Lankan gemstones are sapphires, which will be the focus of the webinar.

Joining Rui and Edward will be gem expert Dr. Armin Sammoon. A fifth generation merchant, he is a board member of the Sri Lanka Gem & Jewellery Association, chairman of the Sapphire Capital Group and is current GIA Alumni Chapter President in Sri Lanka.

There was a time, not too long ago, when new jewellery designers, manufacturers or traders would set up shop and rely on world of mouth plus a few strategically placed print ads to get the word out about their businesses. They then would sit back and hope that prospective customers would beat a path to their doors. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not.

That was then. Today, while a new generation of designers, manufacturers and traders ply their crafts and occupations in ways that essentially are similar to those who preceded them, the tools by which they market their products, target and reach their prospective customers, and then communicate are radically different, considerably more sophisticated and often more effective.

In February 2004 Facebook was launched as a social media website to connect Harvard students with one another. Sixteen years later, it has more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, connecting about 35 percent of all human beings on the face of the earth. YouTube and Whatsapp both have more than 2 billion monthly active users, China’s WeChat about 1.2 billion and Instagram more than 1 billion. And then there is Twitter, Pinterest, SnapChat, Tik Tok and a myriad of others.

Together, the social media represent the most pervasive and functional marketing communications infrastructure in the history of mankind, not only because they are enabling companies to locate with pinpoint precision customers that they would have been unlikely to reach just several years ago, but also because they engage with them through influencers whose opinions the customers trust and rely upon.

As they have in many business sectors, the social media are changing the rules of the game in the jewellery trade, and demanding that its participants develop new set of skills and operating procedures. These will be investigated in the 13th Jewellery Industry Voices webinar, which is entitled “Social Media Marketing: Jewellery’s Brave New World.”

As always, an expert panel of speakers has been assembled. It includes Ben Smithee, CEO of the Smithee Group, a New York-headquartered digital growth agency that provides businesses with a suite of digital marketing and media solutions and who has worked with major corporations from outside and inside the jewellery business, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Del Monte, Signet, Rio Tinto, and many more; Preeta Agarwal, a well-known New Delhi based blogger, whose company Preeta Agrawal Workroom provides marketing consulting services to jewellery brands; David Brough, the London-based co-founder and editor of the digital trade magazine Jewellery Outlook, who has tracked the growing use of the social media in the industry; and Sarah Ho, whose London-headquartered jewellery brand has skillfully used the social media in growing its success.

The webinar, on Thursday, July 16, 2020, will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, with Edward Johnson as co-host. This time it will take a broader, backward-looking view at gemstones in jewellery, considering the role they have played in humankind’s cultural and historical development.

Joining Rui and Edward will be Helen Molesworth, the noted jewellery and gemstone historian and expert, who until recently was Managing Director of the Gübelin Academy.

Following a narrative that moves from antiquity to the present, Helen will consider humanity’s fascination with the wonders of nature, and especially precious gemstones. In her talk, she will look at their availability and use through different civilisations and cultures, while exploring their practical and emotional place in history. In doing so she will touch upon myth, magic, mysticism, and the development of scientific knowledge over thousands of years.

According to the the Oxford English Dictionary, a process or enterprise can be considered environmentally sustainable if it can be maintained while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources. This is a tough standard to meet for most of the precious objects used in jewellery, for once inert minerals are removed from the earth they do not return. But there are organic or biogenic categories of gems that do reach the environmentally sustainable threshold, with the most prominent among them being pearls. Indeed, not only can pearl supplies be replenished, but when the marine environment in which they grow is kept pristine the quality of the product improves.

The pearl industry is more conscious than most of the necessity of responsible environmental management, and not solely because of the economic potential it provides. In recent years the increased incidence of hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons, brought on by climate change, have devastated pearl farms and the coastal communities that rely upon them for employment and their livelihoods. Global warming is a phenomenon that pearl producers deal with on an ongoing basis.

At a time when consumers are increasingly conscious of the impacts of the merchandise they buy, there is substantial marketing opportunity in being able to show that the processes by which your product was produced have demonstrable environmental benefit. This would seem self-evident, but is one that the pearl sector has yet to take full advantage of.

The next Jewellery Industry Voices webinar will feature pearl farmers, traders and environmental experts, and is entitled: “Positioning the pearl as the sustainable gem.”

Among the participants will be Peter Bracher, Executive Director of Paspaley Pearling, Australia’s leading pearl producer; Jacques Christophe Branellec, Executive Vice President and Deputy CEO of Jewelmer, the Philippine’s largest pearl company; Dr. Laurent Cartier, from the the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF, who also is the co-founder of the Sustainable Pearls Project; and Jeremy Shepherd, a writer and educator about pearls, who also is a member of the board of directors of the Cultured Pearl Association of America and CEO of e-commerce retailer PearlParadise.com.

The webinar, on Thursday, July 9, 2020, will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, with Edward Johnson as co-host. It will focus on one of the most sought-after types of precious coral, known as Angel Skin, or “pelle d’angelo” in Italian, a light-coloured variety highlighted by shades of pink or peach.

Featured as a guest speaker will be Vincenzo (Enzo) Liverino, President of CIBJO’s Coral Commission and an internationally renowned coral specialist. Born into a family of precious coral carvers and traders in Torre del Greco, Italy, he is today owner of one of the world’s most important collections of coral jewellery, much of which is displayed in the museum he established in his hometown. He also is an environmental activist, dedicated to helping save shallow-water coral reefs threatened by global warming and ocean acidification.

The webinar will focus on the history, provenance and nomenclature of Angel Skin coral, and also will discuss issues related to conservation and sustainability. The most common precious coral species that produces Angel Skin coral is  Pleurocorallium elatius, which is currently listed for monitoring in Appendix III of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

The relationship between the natural diamond industry and its younger counterpart, the laboratory-grown diamond sector, has been strained virtually from the very first day that the manufactured stones first began appearing in the jewellery marketplace, almost 20 years ago. Much concern was voiced about consumer confidence, questioning whether the general public would be able to differentiate between diamonds produced through natural process over millions of years, and those created in an industrial setting over the course of several hours or days.

An open question that remains is whether the natural diamonds and laboratory diamonds will necessarily compete for similar market share, or whether, as many hope, the new product category will expand the size of the market, by appealing to new customers that otherwise may not have purchased diamond-set jewellery at all.

Ultimately the answer to the question will be decided by consumers, and most agree that in order that they be able to make a reasoned purchasing decision, it is critical that they understand exactly what they are buying. But here there has been disagreement between the sectors about how such information can be communicated in a clear, fair and impartial manner. The webinar investigates whether common and agreed-to frames of reference can be created by the natural and laboratory-grown diamond industries.

The webinar will feature leading representatives from both the natural and laboratory-grown diamond sectors, and is entitled: “Natural and lab-grown diamonds: Rules for Engagement.”

Among the participants will be Wesley Hunt, Director of Programme Management, Consumer & Brands at the De Beers Group, who also is Chair of CIBJO’s Laboratory-Grown Diamond Committee. He is joined by Sally Morrison, Director of PR for Natural Diamonds at De Beers Group, who previously was Chief Marketing Officer for Lightbox Jewelry, De Beers laboratory-grown diamond jewellery brand; Richard Garard, Secretary General of the International Grown Diamond Association, which brings under its umbrella many of world’s leading producers and marketers of laboratory-grown diamonds; and Andrey Zharkov, the founder of Ultra C, a laboratory-grown diamond company, who previously served as president of the Russian diamond mining company ALROSA and deputy head of Gokhran, the Russian Ministry of Finance’s repository of precious metals and gems.

The webinar, on Thursday, July 2, 2020, will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, with Edward Johnson as co-host. It will will focus on the use of diamonds in ancient cultures, in the Roman empire, across Europe, India and the early Islamic period.

Rui and Edward will be joined by Dr. Jack Ogden, a renowned British jewellery historian and gemmologist. Formerly Chief Executive of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, he is the current President of the Society of Jewellery Historians, and was appointed Visiting Professor of Ancient Jewellery, Material and Technology, at the Birmingham School of Jewellery Birmingham City University in 2019.

The webinar will cover a period of history leading up to the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in the early 1700s, when according to Indian, Roman and Medieval Arabic texts it was considered the gem of kings, long before it became a symbol of wealth and power for European royalty. The presenters will discuss how the craft of cutting and polishing diamonds was gradually developed, and how setting them in jewellery was perfected.

There was an axiom about the three most important words in the retail trade, and they were “location, location, location.” It was all about commercial real estate, and in the jewellery business it was what first drove traders to the high street, top of the line brands to Fifth Avenue, Place Vendôme and New Bond Street, and many thousands of chain stores into the shopping malls. But in the post-COVID world will it a be a maxim that still rings true?

Omni-channel marketing is the new catchphrase in the retail market, and it is a discipline where the lines between the physical and digital are becoming blurred, and both are increasingly dependant upon the other. Those retailers that are reluctant to embrace it, run the risk of becoming extinct. “Channels are multiplying  – providing more opportunities to interact and engage with consumers,” noted the Boston Consulting Group in a recently released study of the retail sector. “Because of the growing market complexity and heightened consumer expectations, retailers must have a strong, dynamic, multi-channel strategy.”

The next Jewellery Industry Voices webinar will take the form of a Round Table Discussion, and will feature an open-ended discussion between three experts on the critical topic of ” Will retail, as we know it, be forever changed? ”

Among the participants will be Ashley Dudarenok, a China marketing expert, best selling author and vlogger, who was recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Marketing in 2019. She is the founder of the China-focused social media marketing company Alarice and ChoZan, a China insights and training company. She will be joined by Thomas Baillod, a consultant to the Swiss watch industry and founder of the Watch Trade Academy, who has been advocating for the digitalisation of the marketing and distribution models used in the sector; and Stephane Fischler, Chair of CIBJO’s Technology Committee, who will lead the discussion.

The webinar, on Thursday, June 25, 2020, will be facilitated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, June 23, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, and co-hosted by Edward Johnson. It will be devoted to the subject of organic and biogenic gems from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Biogenic gems derived from carbon compounds, including pearls, coral, amber, bone, jet, and ivory, may be organic, in which case they were derived from living matter. The webinar will look at differences in terminology, and relate these to the numerous gem varieties, with examples from artefacts from the 1500s and 1600s, many of Portuguese heritage.

Conservation is a critical issue when it comes to biogenic materials, and some of the gem materials are regulated by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Webinar participants will learn what it means to be listed in one of the three CITES appendices.

Traceability, referring to the ability to track the provenance of a product and the components of which it is comprised back through the supply chain to the point of origin, is increasingly being required from companies operating in the jewellery business. It is a by-product of greater consumer awareness of issues related to Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability, now heightened in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

The challenge of traceability is significant for all sectors of the jewellery industry, which is characterised by lengthy supply chains in which many of the participants are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but nowhere more so than with coloured gemstones. For whereas the precious metals, diamonds and even the pearl sectors are dominated by larger producers, about 80 percent of coloured gemstones are sourced from artisanal miners, mainly in developing countries.

Entitled “ GEMSTONE TRACEABILITY: Viable objective or unrealistic challenge ,” the ninth Jewellery Industry Voices webinar will look at the difficulties and also the possible solutions becoming available for members of the coloured gemstone industry in the new market environment. It will feature four experts, each with a different perspective – Clement Sabbagh, President of the International Coloured Gemstone Association (ICA); Hayley Henning, Chief Commercial Officer of Greenland Ruby, a gemstone mining company that is among the few large-scale industrialised mining operations in the coloured gemstone sector;  Cristina Maria Villegas, Director, Mine to Market, of Pact, an NGO active in 40 countries that works to improve the lives of impoverished and marginalised communities; and Daniel Nyfeler, Managing Director of the Gübelin Gem Lab, which has been developing technological solutions to enable traceability in the coloured gemstone trade. It is scheduled for Thursday, June 18, 2020.

The webinar will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, and co-hosted by Edward Johnson. It will be devoted to the subject of amethyst.

Among the oldest gem varieties known to have been used jewellery in the ancient world, the violet to purple stone has adorned simple rings, as well as the most intricate of royal tiaras. It also is popular with gem carvers.

The webinar will consider sources of amethyst. With the deposits from the old mines in Europe all but exhausted, the gem has been found elsewhere in enormous quantities from as far back at the 1700s and 1800s, notably in Brazil, Uruguay and Russia.

Synthetic amethyst will also be discussed. Widely available since the 1970s, these materials can pose identification challenges, but nothing that gemmology is not able to sort out.

Among the numerous practices that have become more prevalent since the start of the pandemic, and which also are likely to persist moving forward into the future, is the growing comfort and often preference of consumers to do their shopping online. Even before the crisis set in, Bain & Company had predicted  that by 2025 luxury e-commerce would hold a 25 percent share of market value, compared with the 10 percent share it held in 2019. That number could climb higher in the wake of COVID-19.

E-commerce represents a monumental shift in thinking for the jewellery industry, which had long contended that consumers would be reluctant to purchase high-ticket items without physically handling them. However, opinion is changing, in part because online sales have provided some with a business alternative during the period of lockdown, but also because consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable to buy expensive items through the Internet. But the question still remains whether, over the long term, e-commerce platforms will be able to supply the sense of assurance and intimacy that brick and mortar retailers are able to provide their customers.

Entitled “ THE SHIFT TO E-COMMERCE: Strategic choice or business imperative ,” the eighth Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features three experts with special insight into the developing medium – Alan Chan, General Manager of the Group Branding Centre of the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, Asia’s largest jewellery retailer; Elle Hill, CEO of Hill & Co., a strategic consultant to the jewellery trade who specialises in omni-channel marketing; and Mithun Sacheti, Founder and Managing Director of CaratLine, India’s largest omni-channel jeweller. It is scheduled for Thursday, June 11, 2020.

The webinar will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. Also participating will be Stephane Fischler, Chair of CIBJO’s Technology Committee. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar will be presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, and co-hosted by Edward Johnson. It will provide an overview of the vast world of cultured pearls.

The webinar will look at the development of cultured pearl industry, from the very early attempts to farm and harvest pearls in a controlled environment by Mikimoto in Japan in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It will examine subsequent trials involving different types of molluscs, both saltwater and freshwater, in other parts of the world.

Participants will be introduced to the various cultured pearl varieties, and the relationship with the molluscs that grow them. The webinar will cover saltwater Akoya, South Sea, Tahitian, Fijian and the Sea of Cortez, and several freshwater varieties. Keshi pearls will also be discussed, as will cultured pearl nomenclature.

Over the past two decades, a handful of major trade show organisers have developed into some of the most influential players in the jewellery and gemstone sectors, providing the forums at which members of the global industry meet, are educated about trends and developments, and where they place orders for the seasons and year ahead. But these companies were among those hardest hit by COVID-19. With international travel slowing to a bare minimum and social distancing practices being enforced to protect public safety, almost all the organisers were forced to delay and generally cancel major trade fairs that had been months and even years in the planning.

But the trade fair organisers had been considering their strategic positions long before COVID-19 struck. Technological developments that have enhanced the ability of members of the jewellery industry to meet, display merchandise and do business online have usurped elements of the traditional trade show model, requiring the organisers to rethink the ways in which they operate and serve the industry. The latest crisis did not initiate, but rather heightened the urgency for them to adapt and expand their range of services.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series looks at the impact and implications of the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis from the perspective of industry figures. The seventh edition will examine the state of the trade shows following the COVID-19 lockdown, consider how they may operate as the markets reopen, and look at how they plan to change and restructure moving forward.

Entitled “ THE TRADE SHOWS: Rethinking the future ,” the seventh Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features heads of four of the most important jewellery trade show organisers – Yancy Weinrich, COO of Reed Exhibitions, organiser of the JCK and Luxury shows; Celine Lau, Director of Jewellery Fairs at Informa Markets, organiser of the major jewellery and gem shows in Hong Kong in June and September;  Michel Loris-Melikoff, Managing Director of Baselworld; and Marco Carniello, Group Brand Director Jewellery and Fashion at the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO shows. It is scheduled for Thursday, June 4, 2020.

The webinar will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho. It will examine sapphires and the early history of the gemstone in jewellery.

Rui will be joined by Dr. Jack Ogden, a renowned British jewellery historian and gemmologist. Formerly Chief Executive of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, he is the current President of the Society of Jewellery Historians, and was appointed Visiting Professor of Ancient Jewellery, Material and Technology, at the Birmingham School of Jewellery Birmingham City University in 2019.

In his presentation, Jack will trace the history of sapphires in jewellery, beginning with the earliest known examples, from about 300 BC. Sapphire-set jewellery from across the Old World will be shown, from Britain to China. Sources will be discussed, as well as the limitations of early gem cutting techniques.

Rui will kick off the webinar with brief introduction to sapphire nomenclature, as delineated in the CIBJO Coloured Stone Blue Book.

With the flattening of the COVID infection curve becoming apparent in a growing number of countries around the world, economic activity is beginning to pick up. Stores are reopening, often under strict conditions of hygiene and social distancing, and foot traffic is climbing.

But questions remain as to whether consumers will be prepared to pick up where they were when the lockdowns were first imposed, particularly when it comes to non-essential products such as jewellery. Will the trauma of the past several months suppress the appetite for luxury goods, or will it raise demand as people seek to reward themselves and affirm their appreciation for others during this difficult period? And how will the economic crisis that accompanied the lockdown impact jewellery sales?

CIBJO’s “Jewellery Industry Voices” webinar series looks at the impact and implications of the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis from the perspective of industry figures. The sixth edition will examine the challenges facing the industry as it returns to business, and more specifically considers what can be done to raise and then maintain demand in what remains a global health crisis.

Entitled “ RETURN TO BUSINESS: Communicating jewellery’s unique appeal in a market emerging from a health crisis ,” the sixth Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features four leading industry experts, with each representing a different sector – David Kellie, CEO of the Diamond Producers Association; Huw Daniel, CEO of Platinum Guild International and President of CIBJO’s Precious Metals Commission;  Jennifer Heebner,  Executive Director of the Cultured Pearl Association of America, and Emmanuel Piat, owner of Maison Piat, who also is Vice President of CIBJO’s Coloured Stone Commission. It is scheduled for Thursday, May 28, 2020.

The webinar will be moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and hosted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. It will start at 9:00 AM New York, 2:00 PM London, 3:00 PM Milan, 5:00 PM Dubai, 6:30 PM Mumbai, 9:00 PM Hong Kong.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemmology webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, who will focus on the fascinating history of diamonds from Brazil, which was a dominant producer through much of the 18th Century. The topic is a repeat of the 3rd Home Gemmology webinar, and was selected to be presented a second time by Home Gemmology attendees.

Brazil has an illustrious history as a diamond producer, having been the principal source of the gem through much of the 18th Century and a large part of the 19th Century, until it was eclipsed by the discovery of diamond deposits in southern Africa.

Rui will discuss Brazilian diamonds and their impact on the jewellery craft, especially during the 18th Century, with examples being shown from the relatively unknown Portuguese crown jewels.

More recently discovered diamonds will also be discussed, with some notable stones illustrating the talk, including extremely rare fancy coloured stones, like the 5.11-carat Moussaieff Red, and new finds from the Braúna mine in Bahia, the first ever diamondiferous kimberlite pipe ever to be brought into full production in the country.

With disruptions in the supply chain caused by lockdowns in both the gemstone processing centres and the jewellery retail markets, mining houses supplying raw materials to the industry have selected to curtail or reduce production, while at the same taking measures to protect the health of their workforces. Certain markets have begun to reopen, but with unsold inventory still languishing in the pipeline, the decision when to renew or increase production is a difficult one.

It is a situation that is even more complicated in the informal mining sector, which accounts for only a small portion of total production, but makes up the bulk of people earning their livelihood from gemstone and precious metal production. This weighs heavily on the communities that are dependent on the revenues they produce, and the situation is particularly acute in those countries where artisanal and small-scale mining dominates. Not only are the health systems often ill equipped to deal with the pandemic, but the loss of income and the inability to get goods to market can be particularly challenging.

CIBJO’s “Jewellery Industry Voices” webinar series looks at the impact and implications of the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis from the perspective of industry figures. The fifth edition will examine the impact and consequences of the global pandemic on the mining houses and the informal sector, both economically and socially .

Entitled “THE COVID EFFECT: Impact on Mining and Mining Communities,” the fifth Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features three leading industry experts – Feriel Zerouki, Senior Vice President of International & Ethical Initiatives at the De Beers Group; Peter Karakchiev, Head of the International Relations Department at ALROSA; and Estelle Levin-Nally, Founder of Levin Sources.

CIBJO’s Jewellery Industry Voices webinar series is produced with the support of the Italian Exhibition Group, organiser of the VICENZAORO jewellery shows.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, the upcoming Home Gemology webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, who this time will be telling the stories behind some of the most famous pearls in history.

Presenting and describing several remarkable archaeological discoveries, some very large and others natural blisters, Rui will also consider the veracity of Cleopatra’s legendary bet with Marc Anthony, where in an effort to show who could host the most extravagant banquet it is said that she crushed an almost priceless large pearl from a pair of earrings and dissolved it in a goblet of vinegar, before drinking it.

Rui will also review some of the record-breaking sales of pearl jewellery at auction over the past several years. Among them is the pearl and diamond necklace pictured above. It that belonged to Josephine de Beauharnais (1807-1876), queen of Sweden and Norway, which was sold in 2014 at Sotheby’s for $3.42 million. Photo © Sotheby’s

The COVID-19 pandemic has come as a reality check, underscoring how powerless human society can be when faced by the forces of nature. The fact that, in just a matter of weeks, a microbe brought the most powerful nations and their economies almost to a dead halt, should have imprinted on the consciousness of the world community the need to act responsibly when taking actions that impact on the environment and greater society. It will be a lesson that is likely to influence consumers when making future purchasing decisions.

Great strides have been made in the gemstone and jewellery industry over the past 20 years, in the development of general awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability, as well as systems and platforms designed to protect the health and wellbeing of all stakeholders and the integrity of the value chain. Not only are these likely to retain their relevance in a post-COVID environment, but they are likely to become more widely used than ever before. The public will demand it.

CIBJO’s “Jewellery Industry Voices” webinar series looks at the impact and implications of the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis from the perspective of industry figures.

Entitled “ Sustainability: More relevant post-COVID than ever before ,” the fourth Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features three leading industry experts – Philip Olden , President of CIBJO’s Responsible Sourcing Commission; Iris Van der Veken, Executive Director of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC); and Christina Miller , Founder of Christina T Miller Sustainable Jewelry Consulting.

Following the enthusiastic audience response to the first “Mine to Design” webinar, CIBJO invites you to participate free of charge in Part 2 of the webinar, taking place on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, starting at 11:00 AM U.S. EDT. It once again considers the influence of where a gemstone is mined on the design of the jewellery in which it set.

The webinar is a collaboration between CIBJO and Greenland Ruby, featuring the company’s CCO Hayley Henning.

The lineup of speakers is the same as Part 1, with Hayley interviewing jewellery designers Erica Courtney, Deirdre Featherstone, Stephen Webster, Victor Velyan and Ulrik Hartmann, about how traveling to different gem mining areas around the world has influenced their creativity, design choices and business strategies.

The webinar will investigate how each designer’s personal experience visiting mining areas inspired the process about how they go about their work, and how this in turn impacted their businesses. Panelists will address audience questions not reached in Part 1 of the series, and will also provide some more insights on how trips to the mining sites convert experiences into sales revenue.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the upcoming webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho and will concentrate the subject of Jadeite Jade, or as it is known in China and much of the Far East,  翡翠 Fei Cui. He is joined by Edward Liu PhD FGA, a well known scientist and research gemmologist, who also serves as Vice-Chairman of the Gemmological Association of Hong Kong.

Considered a secondary gemstone category in much the West, jade and jadeite products are wildly popular in the Far East, with estimates as to the real value of the market running in excess of $8 billion per annum. To the surprise of many, this makes it jewellery’s most popular gemstone category after diamonds. Almost all sales take place in China and other eastern markets.

Dr. Liu and his colleagues in Hong Kong and China are involved in a project aimed at creating a set of internationally recognized standards for testing Fei Cui, and thus raising its profile and popularity globally. In this in respect, they are collaborating with CIBJO, at whose most recent congress he made a detailed presentation to a special session. The work being done will also be discussed during the webinar.

There is widespread agreement that the COVID-19 pandemic will result in a massive restructuring of the business environment, driven as much by the widescale use of new technologies as it is by economic forces. Clearly, those companies that had already implemented online trading and digital management and marketing programmes were better equipped to deal with the lockdown that was implemented at the start of the crisis. And even now, as stores, offices and factories slowly reopen, the ongoing presence of the virus means that further disruptions are possible. Technology-driven coping mechanisms remain as relevant as ever.

It could well be that the most significant and enduring COVID Effect will be the technological transformation of the gem and jewellery industry, involving the extensive adoption by larger and smaller companies of systems that enable them to be operated remotely, and platforms that allow for goods to displayed, marketed and sold online. In essence, this has been a process that been taking place for some time already, but the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated it, turning it from an optional into an urgent requirement.

The webinar will examine how COVID-19 is transforming the jewellery and gemstone business technologically, and how in this respect it may become one of the most seminal events of the 21st Century. Entitled “The COVID Effect: The Technological Transformation of the Jewellery Industry,” the third Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features four leading industry experts – Stephane Fischler, Chair of the CIBJO Technology Committee and President of the World Diamond Council; David Block, President of Sarine Technologies, a research and development company that has pioneered and led technological progress in the industry; Mahiar Borhanjoo; CEO of UNI Diamonds, an operator of a groundbreaking online ecosystem that connects between vendors and buyers, securing the sale and safe delivery of polished diamonds anywhere on the globe; and Thomas BaIllod, founder of the Watch Trade Academy, a watch industry consultant who has long advocated for technology to disrupt traditional distribution models.

CIBJO invites you to participate in a free webinar taking place on Thursday, May 7, 2020, starting at 11:00 AM U.S. EDT, which will consider the influence of where a gemstone is mined on the design of the jewellery in which it set.

The webinar is a collaboration between CIBJO and Greenland Ruby, and will feature the company’s CCO Hayley Henning interviewing jewellery designers Erica Courtney , Deirdre Featherstone , Stephen Webster , Victor Velyan and Ulrik Hartmann , about how traveling to different gem mining areas around the world has influenced their creativity, design choices and business strategies.

The webinar will investigate how each designer’s personal experience visiting mining areas inspired the process about how they go about their work, and how this in turn impacted their businesses. It will highlight the success of individuals who go out into the field to learn about and acquire the raw materials they use, and who have made ‘”origin” a major part of their story-telling and their art.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, the upcoming webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho and will concentrate on Brazilian gemstone in jewellery of the 18th Century. He is joined by Luisa Penalva, curator of the Gold, Silver, and Jewellery Collections at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, Portugal. She will appear live from inside the museum.

The webinar follows up on earlier edition that focused on Brazilian diamonds and their impact on jewellery more than 200 years ago. This time attention shifts to coloured gemstones, including topazes, beryls, quartz varieties and chrysoberyl.

Participants will be provided a private tour of an iconic museum collection that should not be missed.

Taking place in two sessions on Friday, May 1, 2020, the webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho and concentrates on the fascinating and singular world of precious opals. He is joined by Damien Cody, a Director of Cody Opal Australia and the National Opal Collection.

Unlike most gemstones, opal does not have a defined crystalline structure, but rather an amorphous form containing million of tiny silica spheres of different sizes, by which individual stones display a unique array of spectral colors. They are mined in some of the world’s most remote locations.

Damien’s companies have received Australian government awards for both exporting and tourism. He and his brother Andrew are authors the “The Opal Story,” a book which now appears in five languages and been distributed in about 60,000 copies around the globe. They are now researching a comprehensive new publication covering all of the world’s opal deposits. In 2018 his company released a limited number of opal master sets for identification, classification and grading.

During the webinar, Damien introduces the new opal classification, and then focuses on Australian precious opals and their eight value factors.

Taking place in two sessions on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, the upcoming webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho and will shed new light on the history, culture and gemmology of precious coral.

Joining Rui is Vincenzo (Enzo) Liverino, President of CIBJO’s Coral Commission and an internationally renowned coral specialist. Born into a family of precious coral carvers and traders in Torre del Greco, Italy, he is today owner of one of the world’s most important collections of coral jewellery, much of which is displayed in the museum he established in his hometown. He also is an environmental activist, dedicated to helping save shallow-water coral reefs threatened by global warming and ocean acidification.

The webinar will focus on precious coral from the Mediterranean, Corallium rubrum, which has been used since antiquity, and valued and used by diverse cultures across the globe. The speakers will draw the distinction between precious corals, which are deep-water species, and the shallow-water reef building corals, which are considerably more likely to be endangered by climate change, and will discuss issues related to responsible harvesting and sustainability.

Taking place in two sessions on Friday, April 24, 2020, the upcoming webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho and will provide a brief look at diamonds.

Providing an historic overview of jewellery’s most valuable product category, the presentation will be illustrated with some of the famous diamonds ever discovered, and provide a gemologist’s insight into the natural stone, as well as background about laboratory-grown diamonds and imitation diamonds.

As we enter what for many is a second month of economic lockdown and social isolation caused by COVID-19, jewellery businesses throughout the supply chain are looking for immediate solutions. There is a growing realization that the industry as we knew it will be inexorably changed when the pandemic ends, but first it is necessary to keep one’s head above water.

Navigating through the stormy waters of this unprecedented predicament is not a simple task. This virus did not come with a script, as one pundit in the UK has opined. No-one has a crystal ball, and none of us can see into the future. But there are signs of hope. China is starting to come out of lockdown and Chow Tai Fook, Asia’s largest retail jeweller, has seen positive reactions from its customers as it reopens stores. How can jewellery retailers both large and small, survive today and be best prepared for the day when business returns?

Entitled “Surviving the COVID-19 Lockdown” the first Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features three leading industry experts – Tiffany Stevens, President and CEO of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC), a New York-based organization that provides legal services for the jewellery trade and represents the industry before U.S. government bodies; Erik Jens, CEO of LuxuryFintech.com, who formerly headed the diamond and jewellery group at ABN AMRO, the industry’s largest financier; and Amit Dhamani, CEO and President of the Dhamani Jewels Group, a major jewellery manufacturer and retailer headquartered in Dubai.

CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri introduces the series.

The topic was selected after a public survey, in which participants were requested to choose one subject that had already been covered in the Home Gemmology webinar series, which began at at the start of the coronavirus lockdown on March 18.

It covers the definition of an emerald, nomenclature, the history of the early sources and the challenges posed by origin determination. While some may familiar with the material from the original Home Gemmology webinar, or from lectures delivered by Rui during GemTalks at VicenzaOro and Gem Tips of AIGS Thailand, new content and slides have been added.

The webinar features special guest Vincent Pardieu, the renowned adventurer and field gemmologist, who over the past 20 years has undertaken almost 150 expeditions, retrieving gemstone specimens from some of the most remote and often the most dangerous spots on the earth.

A prolific photographer and writer, Vincent has captured many of experiences on video, presenting and recounting them them to professional and non-professional audiences around the world. In this webinar, he introduces Field Gemology, explaining why it is important today and why it will be even more important in the future. He provides insight about how one may go into the field to visit gem producing areas, how to prepare, and what it takes to become a good field gemmologist.

For audience members who these days are largely confined to area of their homes, Vincent affords them the opportunity of a journey into the great unknown, in search of the world’s most elusive gemstones.

Webinar participants are provided a brief introduction to ruby nomenclature, and then take a walk through the gemstone’s historical sources, as well as the production areas where rubies are being mined today.

In particular, Rui discusses the Mogok Stone Tract in Myanmar (formerly Burma), which is the most prominent historical source for fine-quality rubies, producing several of the most remarkable stones ever discovered. These include the 196.1-carat Hixon ruby, currently at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the 25.59-carat Sunrise Ruby, which broke the $30 million mark when it was sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2015, set in a ring by Cartier, setting a per carat price record of more than $1.26 million.

The webinar is geared for as wide as an audience as possible, including professionals and gem lovers.

The webinar is presented by Rui Galopim de Carvalho, who is joined this time by special guest Dr Eloïse Gaillou. She is a scientist specialising in opals and diamonds, who is curator of the historic MINES ParisTech Mineralogy Museum in Paris. The title of the webinar is ” Colour in Natural Diamonds: To be perfect or not?”

Rui and Eloïse discuss the science behind these rare gemstones, explaining how an understanding is critical to determining the authenticity of the colours, and how that is relevant to the trade and to laboratory reports.